The Lehigh Valley's Syrian American community is mourning the loss of one of its own.

Catasauqua resident Nazih "Nick" Zarif Mouhrez died July 9 after being struck by a sniper's bullet as he traveled through the Damascus suburb Harasta in a vehicle headed to the Syrian capital for a visit with his parents, according to longtime friend and local American Amarian Syrian Society President Aziz Wehbey.

Harasta is one of several areas outside Damascus that is held by rebels looking to seize power from the government controlled by President Bashar al-Assad. Sniper attacks are common on the stretch of road where Mouhrez was killed, his friend Ghassan Makdsi said.

Mouhrez was an avid supporter of al-Assad and even met with him in June, but Wehbey said he doesn't believe his friend's allegiance to the president made him a target. The attack, which also injured Mouhrez's 21-year-old niece, was likely random, he said.

His niece was hospitalized and remains unconscious after undergoing surgery, but is expected to survive, Wehbey said. Mouhrez's sister, brother-in-law and their baby were in the car, as well, when the attack occurred, he said.

Another of Mouhrez's friends and fellow society members, Basim Wakim, noted that his uncle, a man who is not politically active in Syria, was injured in a similar attack on the same highway.

Mouhrez went to Syria in May to spend time with his family and help broker peace in a country torn by a civil war in its fourth year. He was a deft and open-minded mediator because of his upbringing, friends say.

The 51-year-old was raised by a Muslim father who served in the Syrian parliament and a Christian mother. In addition, Mouhrez was a Muslim man married to a Christian woman.

Those attributes, coupled with his affability, helped him garner trust as he sought to unite people amid a conflict with religious overtones, his friends said.

Mouhrez, who worked as a car salesman and in other capacities for several Lehigh Valley dealerships, was passionate about bringing peace to the place of his birth, said friend Abraham Chehad, who is of Lebanese descent but has ties to Syria.

Chehad explained that Mouhrez was a person who "just couldn't sit still and watch" as Syria was ravaged by war. About two weeks before his death, he began working with al-Assad's government to ease tensions in suburbs of Damascus where rioting has been a problem, Wehbey said.

In his trip abroad, Mouhrez was joined by about two dozen other like-minded folks from across the country. After the Department of State closed the Syrian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and consulates elsewhere in the U.S., Mouhrez began collecting thousands of signatures from Syrian Americans who said they backed al-Assad's presidency, Wehbey said.

Their goal was to offer moral support for al-Assad ahead of Syria's election in June, he said.

Mouhrez was an active member of the society, and last year helped organize a protest of U.S. military action in Allentown, Wehbey said. A couple hundred people joined in the march from Allentown's St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church to a city post office.

He also spearheaded an effort to send money and huge shipments of clothing to those devastated by the war Syria, Wehbey said. Mouhrez had a huge heart and often put others' needs before his own, his friends said.

Chehad said there have been times when Mouhrez borrowed money so that he could lend it to someone in need.

Mouhrez, who moved to the U.S. to attend Temple University in Philadelphia, was a staple at the society's meeting hall in Catasauqua, his friends said. Seated around the card table where he spent many nights playing Trumps, sharing a hookah and talking politics with them, they said it's strange to be there without him.

Even while he was in Syria, not a day passed when he didn't reach out to at least one of them, the men said.

Mouhrez had been slated to return to the Lehigh Valley this week. Instead, he was laid to rest in a Syria last week, leaving behind his wife, a son, a daughter and a host of other family members.

Hundreds gathered at the meeting hall and at St. George to celebrate Mouhrez's life and pay their respects, his friends said.